Good Christian people

I really can't stand good people. I am not a good person myself. I'm more of a bad person who's been burnt by karma enough times that I try to be a good person, but underneath it all I'm not a good person. I have an instinct towards anger, and I have a knack for cruelty, plus I'm lazy and greedy, and I won't mention my talent for lying, which is immense. Because I'm a bad person trying to be good, I am good at being self critical. I know my own motivation much of the time, and because I suspect myself I often question myself before taking rash actions. This is a system that works well for me. I could probably count on one hand the number of times I've lied to my kids (this includes talking about Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy). So why don't I like good people? Why can't I stand people who are good naturally? I'll tell you - because good people are by and large the worst people of all. See, if you're a good person, this is how you think - "I want to so something, and I know it's a good thing because I'm a good person, so whatever I want to do must also be good." Unfair? Judgemental? Not at all. Having spent time among "Good" Catholics, Christians and other "good people" I have seen this play out all too often. I know a guy who is very quick to condemn "bad" people, the politician who cheats on his wife, the guy who's caught cheating at a game, etc. However he makes it a habit of writing manufacturers and lying to get free samples of different products. He's a liar, con artist and thief, but because he knows he's a good person, he does it anyway, because, well, he's a good person, and those large companies send the stuff out for free so who loses? My wife used to do the same thing to get materials for making jewelry. Companies that make epoxy would send her samples, companies that make flooring or counter tops would send her samples, all for free, and because she's a good person and Catholic (who used to be rather judgemental herself) she had no problem with it. What people don't get is that every morning Hitler woke up he didn't say "I'm a real evil badass and I'm gonna start me a war." For all the evil Hitler (or Stalin, or Mao) did, and it was a lot, I'm guessing he always thought he had a good reason . See, "good people" tend to be very aware of those crimes/sins they'd never be tempted to commit (say gay sex) and judge others for committing them. Mark Twain noticed the same thing 150 years ago. A financially secure person is very fast to condemn a thief or a murderer, because he never is in a position where these crimes might seem like the only way out. Plenty of people who are practically asexual (have little or no interest in sex) are no doubt proud of their virtue and condemn those folks who engaged in pre-marital sex. These same good people also no doubt do all sorts of bad things - cheat on their taxes, lie to get ahead, break traffic laws - but they "always have a good reason" so it's OK. Well, it's not OK. Look at the "war on terror". Our country (the USA) has sunk to the level of detaining people without charge, torturing people and carrying out assassinations that kill ten or more civilians for every "terrorist" we strike. We've killed somewhere between 100,000 and million Iraqi civilians, yet without too much trouble I can find people who admire our President, calling him "brave" for doing these things, or saying "if it all works out in the end, isn't it worth it?" If Iran, Russia or China did the same thing these same folks would be calling them (correctly) "war crimes". Really, there are too many examples I could make, and do I need to? Ya get the point? Recently Senator McCain was asked "Does Evil Exist and how do we fight it?", and to me that's the central flaw in thinking. If you want to fight evil, start with yourself. You don't have to go to Pakistan or Iran to find evil. You don't have to go to Washington DC to find evil. Just look in the mirror and you will see evil staring back at you. That's the evil you can fight, and once you conquer that evil, than maybe you can start fighting evil in others.